From the commencement of wide spread availability to personal computers, people have endeavoured to provide information on the personal computer to a user in a variety of different manners.
In the case of publications, perhaps the most widely use currently is the Internet browser which allows the display of information from the sources to which the user links. The difficulty with browser technology is that the viewable page is dictated by both the browser and the personal settings of the user as well as the document available for viewing. Typically documents extend beyond an initial page and the use of scroll bars or similar provides access to the remaining document.
In the case of publications which may carry advertising, browser technology has often proved awkward with only limited space available for useful advertising. For example, banner advertising across the top of a browser page is often used. Nevertheless, an advertisement at the foot of a document provided across browser may not be particularly valuable as not all users progressing into a document will scroll to the completion of that document and ever bring such an advertisement interview. The ability of a publisher to dictate how the page is viewed by a user is complicated by the user's own settings in the browser.
For this reason, other forms of electronic publication to provide different interfaces between the user and the document had been provided. Examples include a Dolby Acrobat and other such formatted programs for viewing publications.
In more recent times, publications have been constructed and include a page-turn such that the entire publication is viewable as intended by the publisher on the screen and the page-turn allows a user to move through the document much as they would a book, magazine or similar traditional print media publication. An example of this technology is provided in international patent application No. PCT/IB01/01621 in which a 2-dimensional publication is provided with a page-turn with the turning page given some 3-dimensional element to the publication. The turning page arises from the publication as represented on the screen such that the outer edge of the page is turned towards the viewer and the outer edge stretches as it approaches the viewer to simulate a typical perspective view a viewer would have of a real publication.
Although this electronic publication provides a page-turn and is a useful interface for viewing publications in the current environment, it does not provide a genuine 3-dimensional representation of the publication which is viewable from all angles. This presents a further series of challenges in both stimulating the publication in 3-dimensional space and in providing accuracy and realism to a page-turn regardless of the angle from which it is viewed.